


curious and strange

by mellowly



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Character Study, Elves are Strange, Fellowship Bonding, Flower Crowns, Gen, Vague, Vignette, Walking, observation, slight jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 17:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14549343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellowly/pseuds/mellowly
Summary: legolas does a lot of strange things.gimli keeps a very close eye on him.(or: making friends, kind of.)





	curious and strange

**Author's Note:**

> wow, my first work for a fandom i adore!! 
> 
> elves like flowers. book!legolas likes running around.

There are a lot of _things_ about the Elf, he realises after a while. So strange. Never still. Never in the same place for more than a fleeting moment; bird-like and fluttering. He is at the back of their party, long legs easily letting him keep up or lag behind on purpose, all eyes for potential danger. He runs ahead to scout, light on foot and every so often exclaiming some joy or other, a flower he has seen or a strange bird. 

He walks beside Aragorn, or afront, striding backwards with ease - and they speak together in Elven tongues, hands gesturing mutedly or glances exchanged, some inside joke that Gimli will never begin to understand. Not that he wishes to. He does not need to. It is simply _curious_. 

He walks with Boromir, by the side of the pony, one hand on its muzzle and smiling, animatedly speaking of great hunts and feasts in the forests of his home, eyes alight at the glee of telling tales. He sings, sometimes, and Boromir will hearken, occasionally teaching him new tunes, man-songs for battle or glory. They sound strange in an Elven mouth. _Foreign_. 

Then he walks with Gandalf, he teases and jests - daring, he dances around the old wizard, sings ditties and trilling notes full of fun and childish prank. He must feel young with Gandalf, Gimli realises. Fey and young, a lad as he looks, and the wizard nudges him off with his staff as if he were a boy-prince, chortling into his beard. Curious. Strange.

He goes to the Hobbits - Frodo first, speaking slightly slower in his liquid Elvish so that they may converse - Of what they speak, Gimli does not know. Frodo is quiet but amused, and when Sam gains courage they speak at length. The Elf is virtually interrogated about the cookery and the gardens of the Greenwood, though in the most proper fashion. Poor Sam flusters and babbles when the Elf bid him drop the titles, that they are _friends_ now, companions on journey.  
He goes to Merry and Pippin, and finds fellow minds in them, and quick to laughter they all are. He runs and climbs, quick as a squirrel and light as a swallow up into trees and over eddies and through bush and glen; he goes into the treetops and fetches them prizes - acorns and pinecones to fill their pockets, berries and tiny robin's eggs for them to snack on.   
  
He weaves flowers into chains with skill and ease, and soon there are daisies crowning bold Boromir, Gandalf's hat has a clover in its brim. The Hobbits delight in it, linked bluebells for Merry and bright dandelions in Pippin's wild curls; Frodo seems joyful and young with a violet behind his ear, and Sam's golden hair burns with poppies. Aragorn, rugged ranger though he be, is not spared! No, he _glitters_ with anemones, white and clear with leaves in between as a crown for the coming King. The Elf himself has taken a crown of cornflowers in the brightest blues. 

Gimli walks without. This, too, he does not mind.

...He wakes with wild strawberry flowers woven into his beard, and finds he does not mind this either.


End file.
